Sierra Club Talks “Eco Travel and Birding in Panama”

On Tuesday, April 7, the San Gorgonio Chapter of the Sierra Club held their monthly meeting at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands at 7:30 p.m. Chapter member Brian Elliott presented his illustrated program, “Eco Travel and Birding in Panama" during the free public meeting. Elliott and his wife Janice, both Sierra Club members, spent two weeks visiting the Panama Canal Zone staying at lodges that cater to birders. Panama is a top birding destination in Central America because of spectacular numbers and variety of birds. The country is also well known for two species of sloths, many species of monkey, beautiful tropical plants, and of course an amazing array of insects. Brian will show some of his photos from his trip and discuss his experience in Panama with us. It should be a very interesting evening. Elliott is the new chair of the chapter’s Los Serranos Group. He is a former geologist who is now in his 30th year of teaching at San Dimas High School. He has organized and led many backpacking trips including several in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska and on Baffin Island in Canada. He has rock climbed extensively across North America, Europe, and Australia including big wall ascents of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite. Brian was a member of a Himalayan climbing expedition in the mid-1990s with a group of his friends in the Karakorum Mountains. The Elliotts live in Upland.